New blog for the Mermaids!

The Mermaids Mercantile Last Sunday!
A day of fun, creativity and great shopping!

visit http://themermaidsmercantile.blogspot.com to see all the beautiful hand made treasures and meet the artist! lots more to come. Next Mermaid event is Oct 25th!

Big event at my shop this Sunday!

We have the worlds best craft fair/ flea market on the last Sunday of every month in the garden area of my shop!

This Sunday we are bringing out all the fall goodies! I have 20 vendors who create some of the best handicrafts that I have ever seen.

It will be a feast for the eyes and a great chance to buy some one-of a kind gifts!

I have searched high and low to find the best, looking at many talented submissions and hand selecting the most unique and talented crafts people in our community all with a vintage recycled and re-purposed point of view.

Just some of the things you will find.....

pillows made from vintage linens.

to -die- for- jewelry and finery

altered dress forms and vignettes

re-purposed vintage furniture, hand bags and clothing

beautiful mermaid paintings

vintage Halloween goodies to wear and display

vintage garden art and furnishings

wind chimes, mosaics, hand made baby clothes

green lunch boxes, dress hand made trick-or treat bags and chandelier's

handmade dolls ( yes there will be mermaid dolls)

a good old fashioned bake sale and a lot more!

Hope to see you all on Sunday!

oh yeah, I am working on a giant pair of mirrored eye glasses, a few seashell crowns, the butterfly dress form (from the last post)and this super fab wig head! Maybe a few more surprises if I can squeeze them in!

Sincerely,
Debi

See the rest of my Cottage makeover

This old truck is a few blocks from my house I jog past it every week, day dreaming about my fantasy design show and how great it would be to drive up in something like this at the opening of each episode. It's so rusty crusty beautiful!





since my last post I covered my pillows with a million silk flowers, and dyed my wool rug pink!














I went to the laundry mat (late at night because they frown on this) put my rug in the biggest washer and waited for it to get completely wet then added about 7 boxes of rit dye mixed with salt. Cold water for wool. (It still shrunk a little) I am so happy with the results, totally dolled up my living room!













My Craft room... where all the crazy ideas are born! I dont know what this
multi-cubby shelf was originally for, but I love it!









magnetic tins hold tiny supplies, my chandelier has peacock feathers, (I don't like it ... it will soon be changed).

new paint cans can be found at home depot for a few dollars. They hold my seashells, fun to decorate. Old grocery store shelves keep my craft supplies organized.

Love the vintage chalk board/sign found at the swap meet.

This is my new chair,(craigslist) pin tucked like my sofa, it is velvet and the orange needs to change to fuscia or deep red. Can you paint velvet? does anyone know?

The curtains are from Ikea I cut them off too short by mistake. A few weeks later I was at Ross and I saw this darling dress ($12) it was floor length. I don't look good in the long style dresses so I bought it and cut off the bottom tier. Then I realized that my leftover dress ruffle would look so perfect on my curtains! I felt like a modern day Scarlet O'hara hot glueing ball fringe and ruffles to my window treatments. "oh Rhett! wear shall I go? What shall I glue?" (Yes I'm corny and I don't sew!)

My Dad built this cabinet from two old windows, the chippy peely old door was $1 at a yard sale, and the vintage metal flowers above the window, I found in the trash.... rusty, and waiting for someone to love it back to life.

My dreamy little bedroom is only 10x11 but is my favorite room! There was no space for a dresser so I put the bed up on a platform made from a vintage cabinet, two giant drawers hold all my things. My bedding is a vintage chenille bed cover dyed scarlet combined with a square dance petty coat/dust ruffle... I LOVE THIS! the pillows are vintage tapistry from 'pure west' by Cheryl Long. these are to-die for, (a trade with one of my clients) The hand made throw was a $3 thift store find, the old window was rescued from a tear down, and the pink rug was white and dingy, my sister was giving it away (rit dye is fun stuff!)

my bedroom is tiny but it has a high arched ceiling. The butterfly is hand painted paper mache, made by an artist in Cabo San Jose mex.

this is my bedroom window... a very unattractive aluminum framed replacement. I added vintage molding, about 60 antique wood spools and a sheer white pettycoat to make it beautiful!

I married a dressform with a vintage floor lamp and embellished it with butterflies, leaves and a dreamy 1950's petty coat.....

I didn't realize that the vintage lamp was european... oops! so now it has to be rewired before I sell it.

I love the details there are rhinestones on the backs of each butterfly that I clipped of of a broken vintage belt.

this is the entry to my bedroom, I was looking through my old issues of Domino magazine and saw some vintage inspired wall paper that I wanted to order for this wall... 120.00 for one roll! (who can do that?) a few days later I went to 'matilda's mouse' the fabulous barn sale in Valley Center. She was having her once a year 'dot' sale. This roll of vintage wallpaper was $1! it's red hot pink and gold with beautiful texture! I had never attempted hanging wall paper before and I spent a long time trying to get it to hang straight, then I realized that my walls are crooked! I put up the wavey molding to cover up the wall paper gap. My dad rescued a bunch of this from his neighbors trash can for me. Thanks Dad!

this super fab mirror hanging in my 4x 8 bathroom, will one day be embellished and for sale in my shop!

I got this vintage wicker cabinet from a 93 year old woman who called me up wanting to sell me her seashell collection.... she said I am moving and I am selling everything maybe you would like to see what else I have before we have our estate sale! (what did she have? that's a whole other blog).

this is my bathroom window, there are hot pink seashells hanging in the window. It's so hard to photograph windows. There are still many details that I have planned for my cottage that I havn't gotten to yet, but untill next time....

Thanks for reading my blog! Stay tuned my next post is a very funny adventure that took place a few weeks ago........ fellow artist and friend Erin Petit sent me a notice from craigslist, it read;

'barn full of free stuff! closing ranch, farm eqipment, household goods,old wood, furniture and more!... first come first served.' .......I went, my heart raced... and I got (two truckloads) good stuff... I will tell you all about it on my next post.

Hope you had fun!

sincerely,

Debi

my tiny cottage gets a makeover

I was auditioning for HGTV's new show 'Armchair Designer' (the name is now changed to 'design virgins') ...after I sent in my video tape, the casting dept called me four times! Each time asking for more info. Their last request was photos of me in my own home, a close up shot of me. a full shot of me and a pic of me in action. YIKES! my cottage was a disaster, messy, no flowers, the whole place was painted one depressing shade of builders tan (even the molding). I had two weeks to whip my place into shape.. no cash, little free time and all the while run my shop and make all of the things that customers order on my website! Here are the results... please let me know what you think.

my cottage is about 400 square ft. It has 5 rooms, a cute little kitchen, 110 square ft living room, a teeny bedroom, itty bitty bathroom and a craft room!

The lounge chair was rusty,and had sad ripped cushions (one of my ex-boyfriends left it on my deck for me). I never got to re-doing it because out-door fabric is pricey and so is re-upholstery.
My friend Cindy had some black and white awnings that used to be part of her cool shop, 'the Pink Flamingo'. I cut them up duck taped them to the cushions and used the rest to go across my roof line. I think this makes the house!

Below is my kitchen... above the stove is chalkboard paint... my friend and amazing artist Melissa Robinson wrote on it for me, it says, "I said I was a mermaid NOT your maid!" Melissa sells her fab signs in my shop and on my website, and you can meet her at our end of the month flea markets too!

this is my new Sofa! Or as I like to call it...' manna from Heaven' the sofa I used to have was cute but not working with the new 'look' and my friends complained that it was uncomfortable. My dream sofa was at Anthropology, a black and white beauty that cost thousands! I had about.... lets say, a five dollar budget for a new sofa so I said a silent prayer for a new one. A few days later one of my customers , Aleta Pitman came into my shop, this woman is known for having fabulous taste and a dreamy house. She asked me about a vintage seashell and crystal covered chandelier that took me 3 months to make, (I was so happy when it was finally finished and made a mental note not to make another one for a long time)! she asked if I would be interested in a trade, I said " Well I need a new sofa" she said she had a darling black and white toile that didn't work in her space.... and here it is! Hands down the best piece of furniture in my cottage, Yay!

The pillows are made by Pam Small, she sells her wonderful work at my flea market, she uses lot's of vintage fabric and images from old books!

this sign painted from recycled barn wood hangs on the wall leading to my kitchen, it was painted by an artist that I met at the Roundtop antique market in Texas!

I love this vintage wire dress form, I got it from my fabulous friend Jeanne Mac. She is known for her great sales! Lot's of dreamy french goodies and her house... It's like a candy store of to-die-for where ever did you find it decor!

my coffee table.... found at a rummage sale. It's a shadow box filled with thousands of tiny pink seashells.

a vintage picture frame... found at the swap meet, made into a shadow box that hangs above my sofa. Some of my favorite things are displayed inside, The giant clam shell pair is a gift brought back from Bali. Number five is my favorite number found in Roundtop Texas.

This is a shrine that I had backed with mirror. I put one of the seashell covered crowns that I make and sell in my shop. If you are, 'Queen of the Beach' it's a must have!

My little patio table was rusty.. I hauled it over from my shop thinking that some day I would paint it. It stayed rusty for 14 months! Now its so cute.... what took me so long?

this is a chandelier that I dropped, the arm broke off and my dad tried to fix it,(he can fix anything) but we couldn't hide the giant glue blob that held it together again. I painted it black and planted it with little pots of ivy, now it hangs above a chair in my living room. I sold one like this to a set designer for a television show that came into my shop one day. How fun would that be?




Yes I know this picture is a repeat... I could not figure out how to delete it (as I said I am tech challenged). Yes the text is a little catty wompus too! what can I say? I spent all night on this, it's 1am. I'm gonna post this thing and get to bed!

Stay tuned my next post will be photos of my Gypsy bedroom, my bathroom and my craft room, plus more about what happened with HGTV. Thanks for stopping by, hope it was fun!

Sincerely,

Debi

my recent audition for HGTV!

Hi Everybody!
this is my first attempt at blogging... please be kind as I an challenged when it comes to technology.
I went to see Julie and Julia with my life long friend Erin and it inspired me to share my journey with all of you.
Many of you might not know that I have been auditioning to get on HGTV (or just about any other network as a design host for the last 5 years.
It has been an interesting adventure and I have come really close (but not yet).
My blog will be about my life, My shop (and the things that I make to sell in it) my clients,all of the wonderful creative friends that have been blessed with, my trips to to flea markets and my auditions as I continue to knock on Hollywood's door! It may not be pretty but It will be the real true inside story of one average girl with big dreams!
upcoming post....
Auditioning for Martha Stewarts show in 2005
When Coastal Living came out to write a 6 pager on my shop Out of the Blue
a week behind the scenes of 'Extreme Makover Home edition'
behind the scenes of Style channel's 'Dress my Nest'
adventures in acting class
auditioning for HGTV's design Star in 2006, 2007, and 2008
Auditioning for HGTV's design star in 2009 the big callback!
Auditioning for HGTV's armchair designer last month (four callbacks)
my 400 square foot cottage get's a makeover
my audition tapes
and lots more.....